Stihl RMC vs. RMC3 Chain?

[Gkiesel]

Thanks for the offer Angelo. Santa was very good this year. I just got a Stihl 441 RM-C. Got it from Rymans up in Washington NJfor a good price. I talked to the dealer today and asked him to get me some yellow RMC. It's funny, I asked him for semi chisel when I picked up the saw, and he put on the last of some type of old Stihl safety chain he had. It cuts fine, but looks like it will be hard to sharpen. The chain has big rakers and a strange sqiggly filler link similiar to Duro, but not. Never saw anything like it. I'm good for now, thanks, George

 

[SawTroll]

Is there really a big difference, if you tried the same chains side by side between the green and yellow? I wonder. I would guess the yellow version would take a bigger bite. But if it's just that the rakers are larger on the green chain and not higher, they should cut pretty similiar no? Never tried to plunge cut with green chain, I assume it would work. I'll have to try it on a practice stump.

Some "green" chain are much worse than some others, and there also are differences between "yellow" chain - such things are most often over-simplified by many posters (and others)! :msp_rolleyes:

 

[Gkiesel]

It seems the main issue with green chain is not how it cuts but rather how it is harder to maintain once the rakers need to be lowered, hence making it harder to live with.

 

[SawTroll]

It seems the main issue with green chain is not how it cuts but rather how it is harder to maintain once the rakers need to be lowered, hence making it harder to live with.

That depends both on the kind of cutting, and exactly which chain (+ more) are involved - again, this is not as simple as many people seem to believe it is! :msp_rolleyes:

 

[mikefunaro]

To GKiesel

It's not that all of them are fine at the beginning.

I will see if I can dig some up--I've thrown most of all the other safety chains out

basically RSC3 and LPX are limited safety chains if that. LPX seems to have less "safety" involved and doesn't meet the ansi requirements. It's debatable whether its actually any safer or the kickback has been reduced.

RSC3 and all the 3 series stihl chains, in my experience, do still demonstrate reduced performance versus the non "3" series chain, even when brand new. it's just less different when the chains are new, as you said.

Any other sort of safety chain sucks though. I'm not saying this just because I hate on safe things or whatever--but there is some stuff out there that really wont even cut. There are things with HUGE safety humps on the non cutter links, there are things with weird curled over cutters, there's all sorts of crap out there.

In the stihl lines, I'd buy only RSC and RMC
Oregon LGX and LPX are both good.

 

[angelo c]

Thanks for the offer Angelo. Santa was very good this year. I just got a Stihl 441 RM-C. Got it from Rymans up in Washington NJfor a good price. I talked to the dealer today and asked him to get me some yellow RMC. It's funny, I asked him for semi chisel when I picked up the saw, and he put on the last of some type of old Stihl safety chain he had. It cuts fine, but looks like it will be hard to sharpen. The chain has big rakers and a strange sqiggly filler link similiar to Duro, but not. Never saw anything like it. I'm good for now, thanks, George

mmmmmm daddy likes 441 !!!

maybe some pics to feed the animals ??? we like pictures !!!

you'll find a lot of things that we here at AS think are common place are unheard of at your Local Dealership. Remind me to get you an address in PA, there is a dealership there that is just short of heaven, loaded with parts/and climbing gear/ropes ect. Albert might come along and post it up for me. Best of luck. Give a holler ifn ya need some help/company/people to drink with.

 

[indiansprings]

I had a loop of the RMC3 chain my wife picked up by mistake, you just take a 3/4" flat file and knock the "rakers" down substantially, it doesn't cut bad after you level off the rakers, would want another loop of it though. If safety is a concern I'd buy lpx over rmc3 anyday.

 

[Gkiesel]

mmmmmm daddy likes 441 !!!

maybe some pics to feed the animals ??? we like pictures !!!

you'll find a lot of things that we here at AS think are common place are unheard of at your Local Dealership. Remind me to get you an address in PA, there is a dealership there that is just short of heaven, loaded with parts/and climbing gear/ropes ect. Albert might come along and post it up for me. Best of luck. Give a holler ifn ya need some help/company/people to drink with.

Here's a christmas pic. Check out the profile of the chain.

 

[jhellwig]

That is some old chain. Stihl quit making it years ago.

 

[Gkiesel]

Yes it is. We'll swap it out soon. Doesn't cut half bad though. G

 

[J.W Younger]

I have a loop of .325 63 guage on a small Stihl. The rakers look just like some rsk 3/8ths loops a friend gave me. Is the .325 rm even out there to buy now or is it just rmc(3)? If its not the 22bpx will replace this when its worn out

 

[russhd1997]

I have a loop of .325 63 guage on a small Stihl. The rakers look just like some rsk 3/8ths loops a friend gave me. Is the .325 rm even out there to buy now or is it just rmc(3)? If its not the 22bpx will replace this when its worn out

I have the .325 RMC on my MS290. Not sure if it is .58 or .63 ga. though.

 

[lambs]

In my (local) experience, you cannot get RS or RM anymore, but you can get RMC and RSC without the "3" on the end......if we ever get to the point where all we can get is the "3" stuff, that's when I'll start buying chain elsewhere.

 

[J.W Younger]

In my (local) experience, you cannot get RS or RM anymore, but you can get RMC and RSC without the "3" on the end......if we ever get to the point where all we can get is the "3" stuff, that's when I'll start buying chain elsewhere.

Yeah, really like how the rm cuts for semi chisel even if its a little wider and harder to file than the oregon. I suppose I can live with the rmc.

 

[SawTroll]

I have a loop of .325 63 guage on a small Stihl. The rakers look just like some rsk 3/8ths loops a friend gave me. Is the .325 rm even out there to buy now or is it just rmc(3)? If its not the 22bpx will replace this when its worn out

Surely the 22bpx will do, but 26rmc should be there as well! :smile2:

I haven't compared those options, as I don't use much semi-chisel anyway.

 

[SawTroll]

In my (local) experience, you cannot get RS or RM anymore, but you can get RMC and RSC without the "3" on the end......if we ever get to the point where all we can get is the "3" stuff, that's when I'll start buying chain elsewhere.

Yep, but they aren't pushing the "3" chain here, so no issue so far! :msp_smile:

 

[J.W Younger]

Surely the 22bpx will do, but 26rsc should be there as well! :smile2:

I haven't compared those options, as I don't use much semi-chisel anyway.

Yeah, i like the lpx and have several loop of it in .325.
Its all 50 guage tho and the link count is wrong for a stihl. The bar and drive sprocket are in such good shape on my 028 its cheaper for me to use the 63 guage and just buy chain tho.
I just got a sale flyer from baileys' yesterday, May get and order together...

 

[SawTroll]

Yeah, i like the lpx and have several loop of it in .325.
Its all 50 guage tho and the link count is wrong for a stihl. The bar and drive sprocket are in such good shape on my 028 its cheaper for me to use the 63 guage and just buy chain tho.
I just got a sale flyer from baileys' yesterday, May get and order together...

There was a misprint in the post you quoted - it was about 22bpx and 26rmc, not rsc.

 

[J.W Younger]

There was a misprint in the post you quoted - it was about 22bpx and 26rmc, not rsc.

I kew what you meant, I don't use a lot of semi chisel either and will prob order a loop of each in 67 d/l. For flush cutting small trees the semi is the ticket and will go so much longer between filings.

 

[mikefunaro]

Also note that the rakers are much smaller on the LPX than on both Srihl chain, and the ramps much smaller than on the RSC3. Those are not comparable chain, but the RSC and the LPX is. LGX is about like RSC.

Here's all 4 (RSC, RSC3, LGX, LPX)



You can see that the raker on LGX is a little bit wider at its base at least than that at RSC, but as ST notes they are very similar.